October 3^rd 2025

oakclass@winterbourneearls.wilts.sch.uk

Dear Parents,

Thank you so much to all who have worked hard to practice writing names with their children during the past week or so.  It has been lovely to see so many of the children able to label their work independently; it makes them very proud!

Phonics, Reading and Writing

The letter sounds we have learnt this week are:

ck, e, u and r

(ck is what we call a ‘digraph’ – 2 letters, one sound and this one is found at the end of words)

We have also learnt a new tricky word, ‘I’.  We have been blending to read a number of words...dig, pat, dad, man, cat, sip, cap, sock, red, duck, ten, get and kit.  A great way to practice these is to cut up the individual letter sounds or use the flash cards if you have them, lay them out individually, ready to make each word.  The children will then show you how we read each individual sound in isolation 3 times, getting quicker each time until we are able to blend them together to read the word.  Please don’t be discouraged if they say each sound and then come out with a completely random word when they try to blend them together!  This has happened a lot this week but we only learn by making mistakes!  We’ve had a few giggles along the way.

Family and Community Learning

We have the wonderful opportunity through the Family and Community Learning group to receive some ‘training’ under 2 headings; Helping My Child with Anxiety and Worry and Helping My Child Build Concentration and Resilience. These promise to be really good courses and if you are interested, please telephone or email the office where you can be added to the list.

September 26th

Another happy week in Oak Class with all the children in full swing with routines, expectations and fun, not to mention, a lot of learning along the way.

Phonics, Reading and Writing

The letter sounds we have learnt this week are:

g, o, c and k

We have also learnt a new tricky word, ‘is’.  It’s tricky because the ‘s’ makes a ‘z’ sound. Please could you reinforce these sounds and the tricky word at home this weekend and in the week ahead?  We have also been blending to read a number of words.  Please see below for these words.

Today we talked about the initial letter in each of the children’s names.  I was surprised to hear a lot of children using the name of the letter rather than the sound.  Please could you reinforce this message at home eg. the short clipped ‘d’ rather than ‘dee’ for the first letter.  Your continued support to help the children write their names would also be fantastic as we are learning the correct formation for a lot of the new letter sounds.  Please note that we do not use capitals unless it is at the start of their name.

Wellie Walks and new email address

We will be starting our Welly Walks after the half term holiday. We will try to fit in as many as we can before the chaos of Christmas unfolds!  We plan to make Welly Walks on a Thursday afternoon from 1400-1500. The first date will be 30/10 and then 6/11, 13/11, 20/11, 27/11, 4/12. If you are able to help on these walks, please let us know by emailing the following address: oakclass@winterbourneearls.wilts.sch.uk .  If you could stipulate which dates you can manage, this will enable us to plan accordingly as we need to ensure we have the correct child to adult ratios. Please also now use the above address for any other messages and this will come through to all staff in Oak Class.  It will save your important Oak Class emails becoming lost in amongst all the other emails that come through to your child’s teachers each day.

Coughs and Colds

Yes, the season for coughs and colds is upon us!  Please could we ask you to ensure your child is well practised at blowing their nose in a tissue.  We have a constant supply of tissues in the classroom but a regular phrase from teachers in Oak Class at the moment seems to be, “Please could you go and blow your nose?” Your help with encouraging independence in this area would be very much appreciated. 

Thank you as always for your support.

September 12th 

We are now at the end of the second week of term and all the children have settled extremely well.  Drop offs have, on the whole, been happy and positive.  In fostering the children's independence we are happy to report that the children are all putting their belongings where they need to go, including remembering which bug box to put their book bags in.  Well done everyone; a great team effort.

The children have all taken part in whole class phonics and whole class maths lessons this week.  They have all sat brilliantly on the carpet, listened, joined in and are all very good at putting hands up to answer questions!  This week we have covered the sounds, s, a, t and p.   We have learnt what each letter looks like (it's grapheme), how they are formed and also what sounds they make (phoneme).  We have also done some segmenting and blending work with games such as 'Can you touch your...' using segmenting sounds to encourage the children to know that 'h - ea - d' sounds out 'head'.  The other favourite is 'What sound does a 'd - u - ck' make?  Next week we will be covering sounds i, n, m and d.  We will introduce the children to a white board and pen each so that they can practise forming each letter each day during the whole class input. 

Sending the children home to you at the end of the day is getting quicker.  Thank you for bearing with us as we get to know you all.  As you will be aware, matching your child to their correct 'owner' is taken extremely seriously and as some children need to be gathered for Fox Cubs after school care as well as organising the children who catch the bus, the process sometimes needs 'tweaking' in order to help things run smoothly.  To this end, we tried something a little different today whereby the children line up outside with all their belonging with them.  Please help this process by waving at us when you see your child appear at the front of the line so that we can send them out to you.  Fox Cubs and Bus Children line up inside the classroom.  

Snacks - the children are provided with a fruit or vegetable snack each morning.  This snack can be a tomato, a carrot, raisins, green beans, apples or pears for example.  If you wish to provide your own snack from home you can do so although please only send in fruit or vegetables in line with our healthy eating policy.  Lots of the children are taking up the offer of school milk which is encouraging and ensures their tummies are kept nicely topped up until lunchtime. 

The children will bring home their wordless books this week.  We hope you enjoy these over the course of the next week and have also enjoyed looking at their library book together.  As a reminder, this will be changed next Tuesday.  Please make sure it's in their book bag ready. 

August 2025

I expect there is a lot of nervous energy buzzing around in your households now that the Summer Holidays are drawing to a close.  We too are anticipating the start of the new academic year and are very much looking forward to your children starting in Oak class; their first day being Tuesday 2nd September. 

As mentioned in the talk given on the Induction Evening (I know, it seems a lot time ago!), please bring your children around to the back of the school and make your way to the Reception Garden Gate (there will be parents who have done it all before with their first children so just follow their lead) where a member of the Oak Class Team will be there ready to greet your children.  We have arranged staggered start times so that your children aren't overwhelmed.  Mrs Hyde in the office will have sent you a message with the start time for the first day.  Please refer to this message by way of a reminder.

We strongly encourage you to leave your children at the gate so that they can make their own way in.  It is fairly unusual for children to be upset but of course, if there is any unhappiness, it may be that we ask you to come into the garden to settle your child if we both think this would help.  You know your child best, a quick departure might be what has worked well at Nursery and we can be on hand to facilitate this should the need arise.  

Collection time for Tuesday and Wednesday during the first week will be 11.50am from the same place that you dropped your children off.  It will take us some time to get to know you all and which child matches with which parents to please bear with us for the first couple of weeks and the process of dismissing your children will become quicker, we promise! For Thursday and Friday of the first week, collection will be at 12.50pm to enable the children to stay for lunch and from the following Monday, the children will be full time unless we have had a conversation to the contrary.  

If there is anything at all that you are unsure about, please email the office (this will be manned from Monday 1st September by Mrs Hyde) 

In the meantime, please enjoy the rest of the holidays and take some time to have a look at the Parent Planner which is produced at the beginning of each term to enable you to see a little part of what your children will be learning about.

With best wishes,

The Oak Class Team

(Mrs Woodfine, Mrs Tattersall and Mrs Natt)

Phonics and Early Reading Parents Workshop and New Starters Picnic

Please come along to our first Parent Workshop of the Year.

Wednesday 3rd September at 11.30 in the Reception Classroom.  One adult per household please due to limited space.

Also there will be a New Parent Picnic just after 12 o'clock, also on the Wednesday, at the Recreation Ground in the village.  Bring your picnic for you and your child - Mrs Jenny Head, Rev Peter Ostli-East and other prominent members of the local community will be there to speak to you and it will be an opportunity to spend time getting to know some of the other families starting school at the same time as your own.  I shall also pop down from school to answer any questions you may have.